Perseverance

On February 18, the world received the following Tweet from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover:

“I’m safe on Mars. Perseverance will get you anywhere.”

According to Wikipedia, NASA chose the name “Perseverance” after a nationwide K-12 student "name the rover" contest that attracted more than 28,000 proposals. A seventh-grade student, Alexander Mather from Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, submitted the winning entry. Mather wrote in his essay:

“Curiosity. InSight. Spirit. Opportunity. If you think about it, all of these names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans. We are always curious, and seek opportunity. We have the spirit and insight to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. But, if rovers are to be the qualities of us as a race, we missed the most important thing. Perseverance. We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation but as humans, will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future.”

We are living in a time when perseverance in wearing a mask and physical distancing is required for everyone’s survival during a worldwide pandemic. A smaller subset of the human race—Christians—are about one week into the season of Lent, which requires perseverance in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In addition, each of us faces our own unique challenges to persevere in our relationships, our work, and our dreams. Thus, it is encouraging to see such a dramatic outcome of perseverance in the landing of the 2,263-lb Mars rover at the end of a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles.

As John McNamee, project manager of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, said, “This mission is about what humans can achieve when they persevere. We made it this far. Now, watch us go.”

If we can make it to Mars, how far can we go in our journey into the heart of God when we persevere?

God's Project of Love

In his 2021 homily for the first Sunday of Lent, Pope Francis said, “We must entrust ourselves to the Lord, to his goodness and to his project of love for each of us.”

The greatest sign of God’s project of love for humankind was God’s incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who demonstrated God’s care for the ill, the poor, and the marginalized and God’s forgiveness even of those who crucified him.

Pope Francis seems to suggest, however, that God also has a project of love that is unique to each of us. Because God knows us so well, as Psalm 139 indicates, God is aware of the best ways to let us know we are loved, whether that is through a poem or song, a compliment from a family member, healing from an illness, or gifts of nature that lift our spirits and bring us peace. Each of us can unwittingly take part in God’s various projects of love through acts of encouragement and kindness to others.

Everyone has been honored with the invitation to live in God’s love, for Jesus said, “Dwell in me, and I will dwell in you” (Jn 15:4). Or, as writer Samuel Lover put it, “Come, live in my heart and pay no rent.”

A Compass for the Journey

Did Jesus use a compass? After all, he had to find his way out of the wilderness after being tempted by Satan, and we know he was a traveling man, for in the New Testament he is variously mentioned as being in Nazareth, Capernaum, Cana, Samaria, Sychar, Jericho, Jerusalem, Bethsaida, Bethany, and Jerusalem, among other places.

The compass actually was in use in China around the time Jesus lived, although initially it was used for geomancy and fortune telling. Compasses weren’t used as a travel aid until the 11th century. Jesus likely would have relied on sighting of landmarks, well-marked roads, and directions from people he encountered on the way during his travels.

In another sense, Jesus had a strong interior spiritual compass. Consider these words of Pope Francis from his homily for the first Sunday of Lent:

“In fact, we are never sufficiently orientated towards God and we must continually direct our minds and our hearts towards him. In order to do this, we need to have the courage to reject all that takes us off course, the false values which deceive us by subtly flattering our ego.”

When he spent 40 days in the desert at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus confronted the false values that attempted to deceive him by subtly flattering his ego, and he rejected them. This experience, along with fidelity to God’s will and faithfulness to prayer, helped him stay continually oriented toward God. Not only did he never stray off course, but he was able to show the Way to others.

Lent offers us the tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to continually direct our minds and hearts toward God. We also have the advantage of following in the footsteps of Jesus, who has left us a well-marked road as we travel within to the dwelling place of God.

The Bloodline of God

One of the most beautiful plants I have ever grown is Swiss chard, which produces ruffled green leaves traversed by bright red, orange, or yellow veins. These striking leaves are a visible sign that, as Kaitlin Curtice says, “The bloodline of God is connected to everything.”

Because God is the Creator of everything that exists, it stands to reason that everything contains God’s bloodline—the source of life that can be traced to God. This bloodline is manifested not necessarily as a physical substance but as God’s Spirit or energy that exists in everything that has being. Although it is said “You can’t get blood from a stone,” even stones contain energy—chemical energy in the bonds between their atoms, thermal energy when they are heated, and kinetic energy when something makes them move. Nothing that exists is not connected to God, whether or not awareness of that connection is present. As Desiderius Erasmus observed, “Bidden or unbidden, God is present.”

If the bloodline of God is connected to everything, then everything is connected to everything else through God. Christians refer to this concept as “the Body of Christ,” and St. Paul used this analogy to show how all people are connected: “All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it” (1 Cor 12: 27). Because of God’s creative activity, we know that it is not just humans but all of creation that is part of Christ’s body.

An understanding that the bloodline of God is connected to everything leads to an appreciation and reverence for all things. Nothing is without value; everything deserves respect. This attitude is reflected in the belief of many Native Americans that all life is sacred, and thus one should not use anything without offering thanks and remembering that we are part of the same cycle of life.

An easy way to practice this reverence is to pray before eating. We can thank the plant or animal that gave its life that we may eat. We can thank the people who raised, harvested, processed, transported, and prepared our food. We can ask that the food we eat will nourish us so we may nourish our sisters and brothers in creation. We can thank God that we are part of a world that includes Swiss chard and other beautiful reminders that through the bloodline of God we are connected to everything.

 

Issuing a Lenten Invitation

Ash Wednesday has rolled around again—the beginning of another season of Lent. As we look back at all the Lenten seasons we have experienced, they may seem very similar—indulge on Fat Tuesday, be signed with a cross on Ash Wednesday, eliminate a favorite food or beverage from our diet, give a little extra money to charity, start reading a new spiritual book, go to a reconciliation service, lose motivation around a month into the season, eagerly celebrate the feasts of St. Patrick, St. Joseph, and the Annunciation of the Lord, and reawaken to the passion of Jesus on Palm Sunday.

Although our Lenten observances may not change much, each Lent is different because we are different from year to year. As Mary DeTurris Poust notes in Not By Bread Alone 2021, God meets us where we are. One year we may be energized by a new ministry or a new relationship and the next we may be dealing with depression because of pandemic restrictions or the recent death of a loved one. Nonetheless, however God finds us on Ash Wednesday, we can pray these words from a song by John Bell:

Take, O take me as I am
Summon out what I shall be
Set your seal upon my heart and live in me

No matter our current circumstances, when we invite God to seal our hearts with love and live in us, our lives will change, and we will be drawn into what we shall be. We need to signal our willingness by issuing the invitation and clearing some space for God’s action through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but it is the work of the Spirit that transforms us during Lent and leads us to be an Easter people.

We are approaching the first Sunday of Lent. It’s time to issue our invitation to God to be our houseguest during this holy season.

All You Touch Comes Alive

Here in the Midwest, we have been enduring a week of bitterly cold temperatures, snow, and wind. The landscape looks like a frozen, lifeless tomb. It is difficult to believe any vegetation can arise again from this winter wasteland.

In the midst of these harsh conditions, it is reassuring to hear Psalm 65 address God with these words: “All you touch comes alive.” Genesis tells us that the Spirit breathed over the waters of chaos when the earth was created, and that upon creating humans, God blew the breath of life into their nostrils. In the gospel of Mark we hear many stories of ill and broken people who experienced new life at the touch of Jesus; furthermore, after he himself died and rose to new life, Jesus breathed on his disciples.

We have been touched by God. How is it possible that God has not touched us, when it is in God that we live and move and have our being? Even in bleak times, God’s life is stirring within us, as surely as well-fluffed birds eagerly eat at our feeders on frigid winter days.

Our times of dormancy and seeming death have a purpose that we are not always able to fathom. My dad, who grew up on a farm, told me that the soil seems to need to undergo a process of freezing and upheaval to be fertile in the spring. We learn from the earth to trust that life will spring forth with the touch of the sun. Just so, the touch of God will always stir us to new life.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I once saw an episode of The Twilight Zone called “A Nice Place to Visit,” in which a crook named Rocky Valentine is shot and killed while committing a robbery. He is led to the next world, where at first he is ecstatic to find himself in the best place he can imagine: a high-end casino where he always wins at gambling, is fawned over by beautiful women, and lives in luxury. After a while, however, he finds that gambling is boring without the thrill of not knowing whether he will win or lose, relationships are dissatisfying when he always know how the other person will act, and being surrounded by luxury is monotonous because nothing ever changes. He grows desperate to escape what he thought he always wanted and begs his guide to take him to “the other place.” His guide laughs and says, “The other place? This IS the other place!”

We are all familiar with the adage, “Be careful what you wish for.” This adage can be partnered with Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in God, and do not lean on your own understanding.” It is a blow to our ego when we get an inkling of the enormity of what we do not comprehend. However, John of the Cross says that our experiences of doubt and humility are actually a gift to us from God, because when we are liberated from what we think we know about God, ourselves, and others, we can be open to what lies beyond our limited imagination.

I often pray to know God more fully, but perhaps instead I should pray to “trust in the slow, slow work of God,” as Teilhard de Chardin advises. We are eager to unlock the mysteries of God and the universe, but if they were presented to us today we wouldn’t be able to comprehend them, because it is through the process of attention and discovery that we grow in wisdom and appreciation. God knows that, ironically, mystery leads us to understanding by helping us get beyond what we think we know and want.

Although we know God so little, God’s essence as a loving, merciful, and generous creator nonetheless has been revealed to us through the ages. Therefore, unlike Rocky Valentine, I’m not tempted to design my own version of heaven. Although I’d be likely to fill it with loving companions, books, and chocolate, “Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor has it entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2: 9). I’ve come to understand that it is enough to ask just one thing of God: “To dwell in the house of the Lord [in God’s presence] all the days of my life” (Ps 27:4).

Gardening With God

Did you know that God is a gardener? It says so right in the second chapter of Genesis: “Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden….” And God doesn’t even need to sit around looking at seed catalogs all winter; with a word God can create new varieties of, say, purple tomatoes or red bananas.

Interestingly, God doesn’t plant a garden until after humans have been created; then, “The Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” It appears that God intended to enter into a partnership with humans. What better way to get to know someone than to work with him or her? We learn something about the mind of God when we see beans grow on runners and learn that cinnamon can be harvested from the inner layer of bark of certain evergreen trees. In turn, God delights in our persistence, patience, and ingenuity in creating gardening tools and techniques.

I also suspect God set us to cultivate and care for the earth because, like any wise parent, God knows we appreciate things more when we have to work for them. Eating sweet corn you have grown and picked yourself is far more satisfying than buying it from the store. Furthermore, cultivating plants teaches us to respect the wisdom of the earth regarding balance and conservation and helps us learn how to nurture life.

I’m grateful that God is a gardener, for it means that God is down to earth, appreciates beauty, and knows how to sustain creation. I look forward to seeing what we’ll grow together come springtime.

A Conduit of Grace

Chapter 35 of the book of the prophet Isaiah is a glowing, poetic description of the deliverance of Israel. Among all the wonders predicted, it is even mentioned that there will be “a marsh for the reed and papyrus.” Reeds seem to get special attention in the scriptures. The infant Moses was placed in a basket among the reeds; Job asks, “Can the reeds grow without water?”; God’s servant, Jesus, is described as one who shall not break a bruised reed; and when Jesus was on the cross, a sponge soaked in vinegar was lifted to his lips on a reed.

The reed was used by the Jewish people as a symbol of justice and also was associated with power, authority, and legitimacy. Both Moses and Jesus were chosen by God as legitimate, authoritative leaders who would bring justice to the people, so it’s not surprising that reeds were associated with them. However, reeds have another characteristic of interest; their stems are hollow, so they can be used as pipes and as part of other musical instruments.

Both Moses and Jesus were empty of ego, so God’s words, intentions, and grace could flow through them. They were a conduit for God’s message and God’s action in the world. Thus the reed can remind us not to be so full of ourselves that God has no space to work within us for our own good and the good of others. We need to allow ourselves to flow with the mystery of our life in God.

The Purest Form of Generosity

I recently learned that one of the sisters at the Mount was named “Generosa.” She was born in 1893 in Gundelfingen, Germany, and entered religious life in 1907. I don’t know if she was named Generosa because she already displayed the characteristic of generosity or because the community hoped she would grow into her name; perhaps the prioress just had to get creative in naming the many young women who were entering at the time. It does seem to me that anyone who devotes herself to the service of God and others at age 14 is very generous indeed. Sr. Generosa’s baptismal name was “Josepha,” in honor of St. Joseph, who himself was generous in responding to God’s call to be the earthly father of Jesus. It seems that from birth Sr. Generosa was marked to follow a path of generosity.

Today we often think of generosity in terms of sharing our money and goods with others. However, as Simone Weil notes, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” We all have an unknown allotment of time that is precious to us. Perhaps that is why we are so humbled and surprised when a person takes the time to give us his or her full attention.

Jesus modeled this generosity for us. He gave his attention to all persons who were in need, beginning with the newlyweds at the wedding feast at Cana who ran out of wine until his last moments on the cross when he comforted the thief who was dying next to him. When a young man said to Jesus, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus famously told him to sell his possessions, give his money to the poor, and “follow me.” The invitation was not just to be generous in giving material wealth but to follow Jesus’ example of being attentive to others.

During her 64 years at the Mount, Sr. Generosa learned to be attentive to God through her daily prayer and to others through her work in the monastery. We too can use the tools of prayer and work to follow Jesus in practicing the purest form of generosity—offering our full attention to God and others.

Changing Our Angle of Vision

When I look outside my office window, what I see is a dead tree. A family of squirrels, on the other hand, sees the perfect place to build a nest, and cardinals and blue jays see a choir stall. The squirrels and birds bring life and beauty to something that, from my perspective, is dead and ugly.

The poet Jane Hirshfield says that we need to change our angle of vision to see the beauty that is still here despite our focus on the darkness. Changing our angle of vision requires putting aside our judgments and being able to look at something from another being’s perspective, whether that be God, another human, or an animal or plant.

Beauty exists in the harshest of circumstances because God’s goodness and creative impulse are present everywhere. When the Nazi regime operated concentration camps from 1933–1945, many of the persons imprisoned there clung to the beauty of prayer, song, and their ability to be kind to each other. In our current pandemic, when families can’t be with their loved ones in hospitals, doctors and nurses are providing comfort to the dying through the beauty of their compassionate presence.

When things appear dark, we can change our angle of vision with the tools of creativity and good works. As Fr. Daniel Berrigan said, “If you want to be hopeful, you have to do hopeful things.” Planting a new tree and maintaining contact with others through prayer and song are good places to start.

Springtime Is A-Coming

Since ancient times, humans have closely observed the sun and marked four “Quarter Days” (two solstices and two equinoxes that signify the beginning of winter, spring, summer, and fall). I recently learned that they also observed “cross-quarter days,” that is, the midway point between a solstice and an equinox. February 2 is a cross-quarter day, because it is the midpoint between winter and spring. In the United States, we ritualize this day by observing the behavior of a groundhog to predict whether spring will arrive early or be tardy.

The movie Groundhog Day cleverly spoofed our conception of time by inserting a man in a time loop where he relived the same day over and over and over. He still had the same amount of time he would have had otherwise, but he wasn’t able to experience the changes of seasons or birthdays or holidays that we use to mark the passage of time. Eventually, he learned that although the same things happened each day, he could nonetheless use the time he had to help people around him and to learn new skills, such as how to become a jazz pianist.

God probably likes the movie Groundhog Day, because Scripture tells us that God has a different conception of time than we do: ”…with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Humans rightly observe that our time on earth is limited, which can be a great motivator to be awake to life and make good use of our days. However, we need to balance that understanding with the perspective of God, who not only made the seasons but became human to demonstrate to us through Jesus that we too are part of this eternal pattern of birth, life, death, and resurrection.

The death segment of this cycle that we are in right now has been particularly grueling as we have dealt with COVID-19 deaths, an epidemic of killings of people of color, environmental devastation through fires and hurricanes, and the last gasps of a presidency. The cross-quarter day on February 2 is a welcome reminder that Spring is on the horizon and will not fail to arrive. We are right to look forward with joyful hope to a season of rebirth into fullness of life.